Advanced Dungeons and 2014 Winter Season Preview – 59th Edition

December 29th, 2013

I miss snow.

Belated Edit:
Sunday ended up having a lot more stuff to cover than I expected, so I bumped this up to the top for the lull in the next couple weekdays.

Standard disclaimers as always. OVAs and shows under 15 minutes aren’t included, so before you get snippy thinking that I missed something, double check or I’ll have to beat you. I’ll give pretty much everything listed below a chance to at least surprise me, even if it’s just to turn on and half pay attention to while reading e-mail for the sequels to shows I didn’t follow. A premise is little more than the brain fart the author used to get their foot in the door, more often than not right after that going right back to doing the exact same thing as every single other person out there and stretching everything out because that initial gimmick is all they had. Not that it will stop the cries of the fans that this adaptation will definitely be different yada yada etc etc I write this four times a year and I’m already tired of it. 

Here’s the usual collection of PVs and CMs. Only included are ones that contain at least a couple actual frames from the show, which eliminates a whole lot more than you might think. There’ll no doubt be more out (edit: here’s one already! Or in non-region locked version) since the season’s still a week off from starting and no doubt there’ll be at least a few premiered at Comiket too.

Mediafire
Torrent

Future Card – Buddyfight
http://fc-buddyfight.com/
Studio: Oriental Lights & Magic / Xebec
Genre: Marketing
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 3rd (Evening)

Premise: 
People discovered the ability to summon monsters from another world. They use this divine like ability to mostly play card games. Also, there are the “Buddy Police” who run around stopping people who use this ability for anything useful. Gao is a card player and surprise, has a super ultra awesome dragon card or something.

Thoughts: 
Wow. I did not get far into that premise before the sarcasm took over. It’s Yet Another Trading Card Game Animetm straight from Saturday morning. That right there is probably more than enough that anybody needs to know. About the only kind of weird thing here is the studio/cast. Not OLM, as they’ve decided they want to be known now. They’re old hat to terrible children’s shows for selling cheap plastic. Actually, I guess Xebec’s mostly been about terrible shows based around cheap plastic for a while now too. *ba dum tss* Anywho, whoever brought them on board also brought a very bizarre assortment of staff with them, such as the head writer for Freezing, Index, and Strain. Not that I think that will make that excusable in any way, but something that raised an eyebrow.

Preseason Swing Rating:
 

 Buy now and we’ll throw in a free blender!

Student Council Officers *
http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/seitokai2/
Studio: GoHands
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 4th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of the sexually repressed student council.

Thoughts: 
GoHands impressed me with the overall production and snappiness of the jokes in the first episode of the first season, and has spent their time since then making me regret it. I don’t even think I covered the most recent OVA. Too many of the jokes are simple non sequiturs into something sexual and while it remains fairly fast paced, it could badly use structure. Any structure. I’m pretty sure there was an episode where it kept leaping back and forth between winter and summer before ending in spring. It’s the exact same staff working on it, so I’m expecting it to pretty much keep trucking right along as it has been for the last… good lord… 2.5 years. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
As non sequitur as disco turtle rabbit cake.

My Sister’s Been A Little Weird Lately
http://www.imocyo-anime.com/
Studio: Project No.9
Genre: Incest
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 4th

Premise: 
Yuuya and Mitsuki move in together after their parents get married. However, Mitsuki is possessed by a ghost that’s in love with her new stepbrother and threatens Mitsuki that she’ll die unless she helps her experience love with him.

Thoughts: 
Technically the official title is “Recently, My Sister is Unusual,” but I feel like rebelling. Shockingly, despite the title and sister sex premise, this is not a light novel adaptation, although a light novel is being made based off of it now. Project No.9’s only other solo show to date is Loli Basketball, so my bowels are already seething in anticipation. Director’s a newbie, writer’s… interesting. Thinking about the career path from creating Read or Die to being in charge of writing the adaptations for things like OreImo and TWGoK is something that will only depress me. Perhaps it does explain the vector that Samurai Flamenco took though. As for the show, the PVs don’t even go 3 seconds before he’s walking in on her undressing and within 30 seconds, has her rubbing herself against him while half undressed. Also, she wears a chastity thong. Not a belt. A thong. While being pinned down and grinded on by the ghost possessing her. I think all’s been said here that needs to be.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Three salmon parfaits.

NobunaGun
http://www.vap.co.jp/nobunagun/
Studio: Bridge
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th

Premise: 
In the future, when monsters suddenly attack, a special government task force called DOGOO made up of people with super powers called E-Gene Holders protects the public. Each of them fights using the spirit of a great people from long ago. Shio discovers during one of these attacks that she has the spirit of Oda Nobunaga inside her. 

Thoughts: 
The first of the two shows this season combining Nobunaga, science fiction, and a completely random grab bag of historical figures for some strange reason. Seriously. There’s like… Babe Ruth, Gandhi, and bloody Robert Capa in that list. What’s his power? Taking pictures and stepping on landmines? I kind of liked what I saw in the promotional stuff though, especially the direction and use of color. Well, the action side of it. I’d describe the other half as twee if I were British or owned a fedora. What worries me is both how little action there actually was, especially compared to how much slow motion blurry effects, and that the writer here could be said to… prefer going very very slowly, to vastly understate. Hopefully they’ll step things up quite a bit. Then again, there’s a billion shows on Sunday, so it’s going to have to bring its A Game. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
Two chikuwa bears.

Witch Craft Works
http://www.witch-cw-anime.jp/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th

Premise: 
Honoka wants a regular, boring life, but his proximity to Ayaka, the school’s idol, causes him daily headaches. After he’s almost killed in a number of bizarre incidents, he learns that she’s actually a witch and protecting him, and that almost nothing about his school is what it seems. 

Thoughts: 
Well, nobody can accuse this director of not being experienced with comedy (Joshiraku, Dokuro, HareGuu, Another, Blood-C, etc), although the promotion stuff is disturbingly bland, and devoid of… uh… anything but a weird washed-out art style that makes it look like it was made ten years ago. But very little animation, no comedy, no magic, just like… a generic protagonist looking bored or annoyed by wacky wacky large breasted, outlandishly dressed females. If this is what they’re using to advertise it, then what’s too boring or lame to show?

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Melon smuggling witches.

Space Dandy
http://space-dandy.com/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th (Pre-air of January 4th (Toonami))

Premise: 
Space Dandy is a bounty hunter along with his alien/robot companions, on the run from the evil Gorgol Empire.

Thoughts: 
Certainly the show with the biggest names and staff attached to it, I just hope that Watanabe’s channeling his Cowboy Bebop/Samurai Champloo days instead of his Kids on the Slope days. The promos don’t really show too much danger that he won’t be, but I’d hate to lose my reputation for spoiling everyone’s fun in these previews. It certainly does look like it’s got the budget, presentation, and style to be pretty good though. I’m a little worried about how gimmicky a lot seems, particularly the English version’s proclamation that “No one outdandies Space Dandy” but the west marketing Japanese media in obnoxious and bizarre ways is hardly new and I feel relatively confident that Watanabe knows how to keep things fresh instead of driving the same jokes into the ground over and over and over again as this last season has bludgeoned me painfully with. The first half of the first episode has also already been out as a pre-air special if you really can’t wait.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  

 Extra fancy only.

Noragami
http://noragami-anime.net/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th

Premise: 
There exist countless gods unseen by humans, meddling in their affairs, both good and evil. Yato is one such god, but one without any worshippers. He rescues a girl from death and they begin working together to help people in need and increase his powers.

Thoughts: 
Bones’s other Sunday show and clearly the lower budgeted and worse staffed of the two. Still higher in the production world than most though, but when your promo mainly consists of a plain-looking girl walking or standing in wind/sunsets, that doesn’t exactly wow me, to say nothing of the creepy faceless background characters. It’s pretty much just your generic action show setup, right down to the useless female cheerleader and protagonist with a mysterious dark past. The staff’s just kind of bad though; newbie director and the writer’s most recent show is BlazBlue. It might be kind of decent on the production front since it’s Bones, but they have been half-assing it a lot lately, and with Space Dandy getting all the big names and attention, I wouldn’t expect much more than generica here.  

Preseason Swing Rating:

Billions and billions of goddamned spiders.

Buddy Complex
http://buddy-complex.jp/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th (Pre-air on Dec 29th)

Premise: 
Aoba’s suddenly attacked by a giant robot and soon after becomes a robot pilot fighting in a war alongside his classmates and a strange young man who he shares his destiny with.

Thoughts: 
This may be the most generic Sunrise mecha show to date. Sure, they advertise it as “a return to traditional mecha,” but the vaguely bisexual love triangle featuring two male leads, one blonde and grumpy, is not exactly something Sunrise ever stopped doing. The promos aren’t exactly showing much either unless you’re a connoisseur of teenagers yelling in cockpits. It’s hard to even say anything about the staff either since it’s a newbie directing and the writing is “Sunrise Writing Committee,” which is somewhat terrifying in its own right. I think after Valvrave, I may be all Sunrised/mecha’ed out for a while and I’m not seeing much here especially exciting besides making fun of the title… and love triangle.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Four severed terrier heads.

Nobunaga The Fool
http://www.nobunaga.tv/
Studio: Satelight
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th

Premise: 
The East and West planets were once connected, but their link was severed and they proceeded on their own. After a long period of war, the West planet achieved peace. Jeanne d’Arc is born and prophesized to save the world. Connection is reestablished with the East planet but it’s still in the grip of war, so she and Leonardo da Vinci travel there to find Nobunaga who’s said to have the power to change the world.

Thoughts: 
The other of the two Sunday magical sci-fi Nobunaga shows. This one has an especially strange pedigree though, being based on some kind of bizarre play/animated hybrid by the original creator of Macross, somehow turned into a space adventure futuristic historical grab bag. He’s doing the writing too, so that’s maybe something, although I’ve never been able to get into singing dancing idol mecha. Unfortunately, despite all the characters with swords in the promo pics, almost all the animation in the promos is either speedlines, flames, or kind of janky looking CGI mechs. Granted, a lot looks like they’re going for a ponderous kind of style with them, but it still looks unusually clunky for Satelight. Again, Sunday, busy, not really a big mecha fan to begin with, not really thrilled with what the promos had to offer.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   

  Will not contain enough Nazi Skull Tanks.

More Bloody Saki
http://www.saki-anime.com/
Studio: Gokumi
Genre: Rude Tits
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 5th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing lesbian adventures of a mahjong club and its futile quest to find Nodoka a bra that fits. 

Thoughts: 
I didn’t last to the end of the first season, let alone the sidestory thing more recently. Nothing’s really changed on the staff or studio front besides excising Gonzo which happened long long ago anyway, so even leaving the overpacked Sundays this season aside, I doubt I’d pick this up. It being mahjong and half the rules could be made up on the spot for all my understanding of it is part, but the glacial pacing is the bigger issue. You could finish entire games in the time it takes for them to explain the special abilities of whoever they’re against, and then it ends up taking an episode and a half minimum because each one needs to have a cliffhanger too. And then they all go munch tacos.

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
 Three promotional dildos.

A Love Song For a Certain Pilot 
http://koiuta.tv/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 6th

Premise: 
Pseudo-prequel to The Princess and the Pilot. A prince who had lost everything flies off in a desperate bid for revenge, but only makes it as far as a small village. The people there take him in and begin to heal his wounded heart.

Thoughts: 
This supposedly takes place in the same world as the movie mentioned above, but otherwise has no real connections. I think I flipped through it and was bored, although this only shares the same studio, not the staff. I’m not a huge fan of pure romances regardless, especially not of the traditional Japanese show variety where it takes the length of three films before one blushes enough to maybe blurt out their feelings and kiss. TMS isn’t exactly a power house of production, nor does any part of the staff (director – Lagrange, Heroic Age, writer – The Unlimited, Sket Dance). I hold little hope. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
 The metaphorical dookie in the urinal.

Super Sonico
http://soniani.jp/
Studio: White Fox
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 6th

Premise:
The life and times of Nitro+’s mascot, Super Sonico, now removed from their usual practice of whoring her out on promotional art and given new life as an idol show.

Thoughts:
Sonico has been in a few generic idol raising games on various systems, so it’s probably more a quasi adaptation of any one of those than randomly pulled out of an ass because doing new things is scaaaary, especially for White Fox, kings of the totally unambitious, cheap as hell adaptation. The writer has 100% of the experience in the main staff, which is just Jormungandr with White Fox, but far more relevant and still recent, Maken-ki and HSotD, so you know the script’s in hands eager and willing to do whatever it takes to get some ridiculous T&A. And the promo begins with a full body pan of her before a cat leaps into her cleavage, so the priorities are already well-established even before she strips, humps a bicycle seat, and presents her crotch for the simulated camera. Subtlety, thy name is not Sonico.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Hip hip tits!

D-Frag!
http://www.d-fragments.net/
Studio: Brains Base
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 6th

Premise: 
Kenji likes to believe that he’s a bad boy, but then he runs into a game-making club of girls far more out-of-control than him and gets forced into joining their club.

Thoughts: 
Another weird combination, but not one totally devoid of hope, although the premise of ‘antisocial guy with joins club of wacky girls’ is certainly devoid of the slightest attempt at creativity. It somehow amazingly isn’t from a light novel either. Brains Base and comedy hasn’t traditionally been a winning combination, but it seems to be where they flex their animation muscles more than most of their other shows, limp as those muscles traditionally are. From the promos though, this would not appear to be one of those times. The director’s nobody, but the writer certainly has more than his fair share of decent and horrible comedies under his belt (let’s call Danganronpa, Carnival Phantasm, and School Days a ‘representative’ sampling). I don’t feel particularly hopeful for it, but it might surprise.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Truly truly truly outrageous.

Hamatora
http://hamatorapj.com/
Studio: NAZ
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 7th

Premise: 
Some people have special powers called Minimum. Two of these people run a detective agency. They learn that there’s a serial killer targeting people with Minimum powers and get drawn into hunting him down.

Thoughts: 
Ah, here’s our good friend, Kishi Seiji, and doing a pseudo-detective story about teens with super powers? Where have I seen this before? Besides Persona 4, Danganronpa, Angel Beats… And with the writers of most recently Galilei Donna too? Well color me pink and hang me up on the line with the panties. Fine, fine. The promo doesn’t look horrible and he’s really not a terrible director as far as action goes compared to all the ones content to just self-narrate the entire fight, throw up some stills, and piss off early for whores and sushi. He’s not exactly what I’d call great at actually building up to, executing, or resolving such things either though. It’s difficult for me to get excited about a very know, very mediocre factor, especially when there’s not much else released or known about the show as of yet.

Preseason Swing Rating:
       
One magical detective force.

Ghost Watch
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/youkai-watch/
Studio: Oriental Lights and Magic 
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 8th (early morning)

Premise: 
Keita wins a strange watch from a capsule machine. When he puts it on, he starts seeing ghosts all over town. He makes friends with one and they travel around town encountering, collecting, and fighting all kinds of other ones.

Thoughts: 
The one thing that might give me a little hope here is the director (Campanella, OreTsuba). He’s certainly got talent in comedy and directing general, especially when he just cuts loose and goes nuts, but I really doubt that a glorified prime time commercial for a 3DS Pokemon ripoff RPG is going to be the vehicle for that brand of creativity. If it turns out to be anything more than just a toy commercial, you can probably consider that a win. Unlikely to be worth watching still, but what do you expect from something with Collect Them All built right in?

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
But ghosts are unwatchable.

Fourteen Sick 
http://www.anime-chu-2.com/
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Whiny Teenage Melodrama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 8th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of a bunch of melodramatic ninnies who for the first 1-3 episodes have imaginary overanimated battles.

Thoughts: 
Me? Hold a grudge? Never. While I did make it to the end of the first season, I did so carrying a singleminded hatred of every single one of the characters and annoyance that they completely dropped the ridiculous overanimated fight scenes to become Yet Another Teenage Melodrama about a bunch of whiny kids being sad that nobody understood their feeeeeelings as told through a crushing number of flashbacks. It was heavy handed, clumsy as hell about it, and I’d call it try-hard, except that it was basically constructed on a marketing checklist of “here’s things that are popular right now.” Ye gods, there was even an intro and outtro sequence explaining how they were totally hip to teenage ways and totally get cool people like you. I’m pretty sure that chip on my shoulder will not be going away before this kicks off, nor will it just be nonstop delusional battles either.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
An overdue mercy killing.

Unconfirmed and In-Progress 
http://mikakunin.jp/
Studio: Dogakobo
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 8th

Premise: 
Yonomi finds out that she’s the finacee of a boy her age who lives in the countryside. He moves in with her on her 16th birthday along with his younger sister.

Thoughts: 
This might turn out to be a decent comedy. Dogakobo’s been handling the production side of their low key comedies decently in recent years and this is the same director as GJ Club. The writer’s from KyoAni in the beforetimes and a little more geared toward melodrama (Clannad, Kanon, Golden Time), but has done… uh… Infinite Stratos more recently? Okay, and Fumoffu long ago too. One of the promos (not the one that is literally just walls and walls of text) is relatively spastic too, so hopefully this time they’ll be able to keep up the energy of the first episode of GJ Club/Yuruyuri all the way through instead of the massive drop-off after the first episode yet again. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
     
Unidentified and still growing.

Silver Spoon
http://www.ginsaji-anime.com/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 9th

Premise:
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of a city boy learning about agriculture and being attacked by cows.

Thoughts:
I didn’t make it very far into the first season of this before I hated the endlessly narrating, shouting, and excrutiatingly imbecilic protagonist. I think it was about three minutes. You would be safe to assume that I would not be particularly interested in picking it back up now. It does have a new director, although he was part of the staff before so I expect little to change. It’s noitaminA anyway. I almost never watch anything noitaminA. When I do, it’s usually because someone put arsenic in the drinking water and ended up making Guilty Crown.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Two and a half genetically enhanced farm bunnies.

Magical Warfare
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/mahosen/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 9th

Premise: 
Takeshi has a normal life, besides being the fake boyfriend of his childhood friend due to incidents in his past. He finds a girl collapsed who claims to be able to use magic and draws him into a battle in two worlds, one of regular humans, and one of magic users.

Thoughts: 
If you were wondering what happened to that guy who directed all of Madhouse’s barely animated pseduo-sports reaction imagefests (Akagi, One Outs, Kaiji), here he is! And Iron Man too! That doesn’t make me confident that he knows how to direct an actual fight scene. The head writer’s a little more out there (Walkure Romanze, Milky Holmes, Muromi), but this doesn’t strike me as something that’s going to be taking the light hearted action route. Too many people talking seriously at, or just glaring into the camera for anybody to be having any fun that isn’t comically falling into breasts or something. Madhouse does have the animation chops when it tries, but more often than not, they don’t, and this isn’t a team that makes me confident that they can pull off the premise of “magic teenagers kung-fu fight,” lofty as a goal that is.  

Preseason Swing Rating:

  No comparison to Turtle Warfare.

Houzuki’s Cool Head
http://hozukino-reitetsu.com/
Studio: Wit
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 9th

Premise: 
Houzuki is the aide to Enma, the king of hell. He resolves the issues that arise when trouble doomed souls arrive or heroes invade and cause havoc.

Thoughts: 
Ugh. Wit (Attack On Titan). Not a studio that has impressed me thus far, and its promo stuff is barely animated unless someone is screaming, in which case they add some speedlines. Reach for the moon, you crazy dreamers. The director’s only done bad melodramatic girly stuff too (writer’s done putz-all), so I expect them to handle comedy like a rhino wearing mittens would handle fine crystal. I expect it to yell at me quite a bit and not much else. I guess it saves on the visits to the Dollar Sadomasochism Hut, but not still not how I generally prefer to spend my time.

Preseason Swing Rating:
    
Japanese hell, so only 2% the expected screaming horrors.

Z/X Ignition
http://zxignition.tv/
Studio: Who Knows?
Genre: More Card Game Nonsense
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 9th

Premise: 
Five portals to different worlds open up and war breaks out between them with only one being able to survive and have a future.

Thoughts: 
Another TCG-based bit of nonsense, although I guess it also has some cheapo PS3 game to go along with it. I suppose it’s unusual that it’s not in the usual timeframe for hawking this garbage, but neither was Fantasista Dolls. They’re playing everything about it otherwise pretty close to the vest by releasing basically no promotional materials, but that’s all the more reason to have zero hope whatsoever for it. I guess the director knows how to choreograph action, but his last show was Crime Edge, so with a trading card game’s budget, I’m sure the sky’s the limit!

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
The crap I have to deal with.

Sakura Trick
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/sakura/
Studio: Deen
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 9th

Premise: 
Haruka and Yuu used to be best friends, but they ended up sitting on opposite sides of the class and started to grow apart. Haruka misses her and decides that they need to do more special things together to stay besties.

Thoughts: 
Really? If sitting a few feet further apart puts a rift in your friendship, then I think the melodrama train has already left the station for Ridiculousville. The director spent most of his career second chairing for Shaft’s awful set of comedies (Summer Storm, Maria Holic, etc) and finally got his chance to shine with… Da Capo 3. And now he’s teamed up with Deen. Off to a great start. For a fun game, watch the promos and count how many times bad Powerpoint backgrounds are used. Reminds me of that horrible unanimated recent Minami-ke season already, and that is how they’re advertising it. What joy. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
May not contain any actual tricks.

Nourin
http://www.no-rin.tv/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 10th

Premise: 
Kosaku is devestated when his favorite idol retires, but then a girl who looks exactly identical enrolls in his rural school. 

Thoughts: 
This is the Silver Link team that I… well, I’d hate to say like since most of their more recent shows have been… messy… (Watamote, Dusk Maiden, C3), but that definitely veer more toward a more creative and interesting approach to directing and presentation. The promo that’s out doesn’t look very promising though, nor does the premise and yet more damn idol anything do a lot other than make me want to make and then knife and then burn some kind of AKB totem. It’s one of only two Friday shows though… both about idols… so my attention is its to lose.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Three desperate attempts at absorbing the idol trend after the fact.

Wake Up, Girls!
http://wakeupgirls.jp/
Studio: Ordet/Tatsunoko Production
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 10th

Premise: 
Green Leaves Entertainment used to be a successful talent agency, but has lost every one of their clients. To save the business, they decide to create their own idol group from nothing.

Thoughts: 
And here’s our other Friday idol show, directed by the great Yamakan. Apparently he didn’t quit like he promised after Fractale wasn’t the anime-changing epic experience he vowed it’d be. But now he’s got the head writer of Karneval and Amnesia helping out! Okay, and a couple of actual decent comedies every now and then but mostly not. While Ordet and Tatsunoko can be impressive from time to time, it’s mostly in OVAs and certainly not in the no-doubt rotoscope-ful area of idols prancing around. They’re also going whole hog with the “make a new idol group” thing by making the cast almost entirely rookie VAs. While I don’t generally care about voice acting too much, when they’re bragging about how inexperienced the people they’re going to be working with are, I can’t help but feel that they’re already setting up excuses for it to fail.

Preseason Swing Rating:
      
It’s… more goddamned idols!

Fake Love
http://www.nisekoi.jp/
Studio: Shaft
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 11th

Premise: 
Raku and Chitoge are the kids of rival gang leaders. The gangs come to a peace and the two of them are forced to pretend like they’re a couple even though they hate each other.

Thoughts: 
Since this is one of those Shounen Jump shows where having any kind of development is treated like a swarm of angry killer bees shoved into the underwear, the biggest hope is that Shinbo and Shaft will just screw around with it like they used to do with all their adaptations. However, in the first promo with any actual animation, there’s nearly half a dozen close-ups of eyes within the first 20 seconds. I don’t exactly feel like it’s a large step up. Also some ridiculously awful CGI. I haven’t made my dislike of Shinbo’s recent attempts to be as Shinbo as possible a secret, and him combined with Shounen Jump is probably going to end up my double kryptonite. I guess the gist is that I am not excited to see what this will bring. Once upon a time, I did really like Shaft and Shinbo. This doesn’t look to be the show that will bring back those warm and fuzzy memories.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
One great big cock worshipping orgy.

World Conquest
http://www.sekaiseifuku-zzz.com/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 11th

Premise: 
There exists a secret group called Zeveza out to conquer the world. Their leader is a little girl named Kate.

Thoughts: 
Now here’s an odd duck. The director’s from old school Bones’s action shows (Wolf’s Rain, DtB), but more recently Blue Exorcist, with Hoshizora Meteo of Liar-Soft/Type-Moon assisting on the writing front. It certainly looks odd, and A-1 at least throws lots of money at the first episodes of most of their shows even if it tends to trail off. What does particularly worry me is how many promos and commercials it’s thrown out there without a single frame from the actual show. The one brief bit that does have actual clips is underwhelming too to say the least. Hopefully it’s as wacky as it looks and not just unanimated (or ugly CGI) one-off gimmicks repeated ad nauseam. I know which of those two I’d bet on if it came down to it. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
80% of an animal girl.

Wizard Barristers
http://wizardbarristers.com/
Studio: ARMS
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 12th

Premise: 
Humans and wizards live together, but due to the power of magic, there have to exist special courts for trying wizards according to magical law. Cecile has just become the youngest wizard barrister ever.

Thoughts: 
Oh, ARMS. Where would anime be without you? God help me though as it actually has some of the best promotional stuff for this season. Trains exploding, wizards casting spells using mopeds, clowns blowing up banks, people getting shot in the kneecap and then stomped on, guys in leather jackets throwing fireballs at helicopters, little girls cutting airplanes in half, gavels that erupt in flame dragons, naked girls in the bath… Take notes, other shows and stop advertising with screencaps of your website. Also, if the somewhat creepy eyes remind you of Mezzo, it’s because it’s the same director back from his long slumber besidesGalileiDonnalastseasonshutup!, but he looks like he’s been given total control of this one and all the budget ARMS has been saving up with its T&A shows made on a shoestring budget, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be relatively solid. …Or if it blows its entire wad on the first episode which it stuck all the impressive parts in the promo. Wouldn’t be the first time ARMS did that at all.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Does Pooh have to smack a bitch? I think Pooh has to smack a bitch.

Inari Barking the Basics of Love
http://inarikonkon.jp/
Studio: Production IMS 
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 15th

Premise: 
Inari saves a fox from drowning and is given divine powers. Just saying her name and then barking like a fox can change her form and perform other miracles. The story of the herself and the crush she has on a boy as she learns about her new powers, and of all the romances of the people around her.

Thoughts: 
Well, at least it’s some effort at creativity. The first and only time this director was put in charge of a show, it was the second season of Orphen. The head writer’s the same prolific albeit up-and-down woman as Wake Up, Girls, so that’s a sentence saying nothing none of us will ever get back. The promo isn’t particularly impressive and contains a bit more crying, blossoms in wind, and sparkly backgrounds than I generally prefer to see too. I don’t really know. It seems harmless, but that’s a far cry from interesting or exciting.

Preseason Swing Rating:

No daughter of mine!

Maken-ki!
http://maken-ki-two.com/
Studio: Xebec
Genre: Floppy Tits
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres January 15th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of large breasted women with fighting powers or something, and some random loser who can blow off pants.

Thoughts: 
The only things I honestly remember at this point about the first season are the pornographic exercise DVD specials and that the protagonist exploded some random guy’s jeans. I’m happier that way. The director has changed from the first season, although it’s the guy that did the pornographic OVAs which I missed/briefly flipped through without actually watching. The new season looks to be continuing that trend if the promos are anything to go by. Granted, it looks like the animation might take a step up from rock bottom, but I’m pretty sure that my patience with this show has more than run its course, and I only really watched it because I needed something to tune out to after classes on Tuesdays, and even then, I ended up rambling about Dragon Ball or other unrelated things half the time. Looking back at my notes, apparently they fought a bear at some point. I have no idea.

Preseason Swing Rating:

A lot of round things jiggling like bowls full of jelly.

Happiness Charge PreCure!
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/precure/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Cell Phone Strap Sales
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres February 1st (evening)

Premise: 
The bloody eleventh iteration of Pretty Cure. This time based around desserts and dancing, because idols are the totally hot new thing.

Thoughts: 
Good god. Eleven? Isn’t it time to maybe try starting a new franchise? Just call it something slightly different and make the cutesy animals slightly larger so you can mark up the stuffed animals an extra 25% and make them all transform into cars. And even if it fails, you can always bring back PreCure the next year like Classic Coke. Trying to jump on the idolgasm spew of the recent years does have the whiff of desperation too.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Mankind ill needs a moldy franchise such as you.

Final Thoughts:
Sundays are going to be a complete mess with 8 shows airing, including the two that had the runaway best promotional stuff of the lot (Space Dandy and Wizard Barristers). At least a couple have pre-airs… like one tomorrow (or I guess today by the time most people read this). I can’t say it looks like the strongest season otherwise, especially with bloody four idol shows (I’m counting Pretty Cure), but there’s been worse. Not a single show has Mari Okada doing any writing for example. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday still look a little bleak, but who knows, maybe one of the idol shows will actually be about space iguanas. I guess I’m also covering a couple shows already on those days that while disappointing me especially lately, haven’t frothed my bile entirely yet.

Anyway. Like you’ve gotten used to by now I’m sure, due to work, coverage for most will be basically “whenever I get home and decompress.” I still plan on at the very least doing a short post of everything mentioned above and maybe one or two of the 10 minute shows should the mood strike me as it occasionally does.

Go wild.

Posted in Season Preview | 12 Comments »

12 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • nightshadow2239 says:

    This season seems pretty decent. You’re going to do a post on shows like PreCure though? I can’t wait for your comments on that.

  • someone says:

    Other than a few interests, this season looks pretty stupid to me. But if Maken-ki is censored (even from AT-X) I’ll wait for the blu-rays. Like I did with To LOVE-ru lightbeams.

  • Kadi says:

    Thank you for again confirming this is another season I can blissfully ignore!

  • marvelous stan says:

    Come on Wizard Barristers don’t suck!!!

  • Flood says:

    Of interest to me:

    – Nourin – hate to say it, but I really like Silver Link (well most of the time). I enjoyed “C3” quite a bit (visually).

    – Sakura Trick – carpet munching.

    – Inari Barking the Basics of Love – for some reason, the promo reminds me of “Ah! My Goddess”, so I’m sure I’ll give this a spin.

    – World Conquest – like the premise. Seems interesting on paper.

    – Fake Love – Shaft fan. Between Shaft and Kyoto Animation, no other current anime studio seems to be able to light a scene let alone edit a show properly. Shaft and Kyoto Animation stumble in handling the writing, but their animation skills are the best today.

    – Sakura Trick – carpet munching.

  • The Phantom says:

    I will go for sister sex, WitchCraft, Noragami, magical warfare, mikakunin.

    Maybe: airplane prince, D-Frag, chūnibyō, nourin, fake love.

    BTW: I think that pupa is missing from your list, looks like a terrible show though.

  • Anonymous says:

    watch – SPACE?DANDY, Robot Girls Z, Yakuindomo 2

    check- nobunagun, Wizard Barristers, Nobunaga the Fool, Z/X IGNITION. pupipo, double circle, Nobunagun, Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road, Onee-chan ga Kita

    ecchi only- Sakura Trick, D-Frag!, Mikakunin de Shinkoukei, GO!GO!575, Mahou Sensou, Nourin, Wake Up, Girls!, Nisekoi, Sekai Seifuku, pupa, Strange+, SUPER SONICO, Saki Zenkoku-hen, Witch Craft Works, Saikin Imouto

    f*** no
    Maken-ki! 2 (when the BDs come out I’ll grab the ecchi scenes)
    Chuunibyou 2
    noragami
    Buddy Complex

  • Longhaul says:

    Not gonna lie, Saki is the one I am looking forward to the most.

  • anise_punter says:

    The only one I really want to see capped is D-Frag, but my guess is it ends up being too “main character just shouts all the time”-y for you.

    “and its futile quest to find Nodoka a bra that fits.”

    Everyone knows Stealth Momo is the best one anyway.

  • UltimaLuminaire says:

    Time to grit my teeth again. D-Frag is by far one of my favorite gag mangas, but an anime in this day and age of failure after failure can only mean my utter disappointment.

    Good luck, Aroduc, and thank you for the previews.

  • MarkMyWord says:

    And of course I’ll be watching Magic Warfare just for the [Shana] looking girl, the [Strike The Blood] blondie childhood friend in love with the MC, the [Rental Magica] superpowered eye and the [at least 100 animes] arrogant looking classmate.

  • Gil says:

    I never understood your “Preseason Swing Rating” for the 8+ years I’ve been following you.